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HARTFORD, Conn.  The state, towns and power companies are woefully unprepared to handle major weather disasters, and Connecticut would be virtually brought to a standstill for at least a month if a Category 3 Hurricane hit anytime soon.

Thats why vastly improved training, preparation, tree-trimming, power line infrastructure as well as communication and coordination among all agencies must be acted on quickly, according to a report submitted Thursday to Gov. Dannel Malloy.

Those are among the 82 recommendations included in the 35-page report prepared by the Two-Storm Panel that Malloy appointed after Hurricane Irene in August and the historic October noreaster left a record 809,000 Connecticut Light & Power customers in the dark  many for more than a week.

The eight-member panel will vote Monday at 9:30 a.m. in the Legislative Office Building on making the report official.

We have prepared a very comprehensive document of disaster preparedness in the state of Connecticut, and clearly there is a lot of work that needs to be done, said panel Co-Chairman Joseph McGee, vice president of the Business Council of Fairfield County.

But this isnt so much a report that is meant to point fingers and blame at anyone. Its more of an in-depth study on what needs to be done to deal with future storms, said McGee.

The two storms we experienced within a two-month period were very serious, but they were not even close to a Category 3 Hurricane, and theres a great deal to improve on to curtail the devastating impact of such a storm when it does hit the state, said McGee, adding ominously, which all the experts advise us is due in the near future.

In preparing the report, the panel considered nearly 800 pages of testimony from nine public sessions, including a report by the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, James Lee Witt.

His Washington, D.C., firm, Witt Associates, said CL&P was not only unprepared for the storms but also made critical mistakes and was seriously undermanned during the Oct. 29 snowstorm. Witt also stated that in CL&Ps preparation for a "worst-case scenario" the utility had planned for only 100,000 customers to lose power.

While McGee said making the utilities more resilient up front with improved and updated infrastructure, he added that one of the big questions will be how much money the public is willing to have spent to accomplish that.

It would cost $2.2 billion over 10 years to upgrade power lines and infrastructure to achieve a 30 percent to 40 percent reduction in power outages and restoration time, CL&P officials said last month. That would mean a rate hike of about $13 monthly for the average customer by the time the upgrades are complete, or about $150 a year.

But that may be necessary, officials say, as nearly half of the states power lines and infrastructure have exceeded their 40-year lifespans  with some power lines and other equipment hitting the age of 70.